I’m getting really tired of telling you this, guy. Honestly, it’s really starting to make me sick that you aren’t listening to me, even after all of this time. I really wish you’d get it together, you know? Like I have! Look at me, out here doing my best, putting in the work. But you just keep nagging me, don’t you?! You just keep poking at my eyes, aren’t you?! You think I don’t know? You think I can’t feel you doing it? I’m on to you, guy! I know what your game is, tell you what. So listen up - !

 

  The black-water surges around me, the acid bile flowing over my skin and singeing it, burning it, clawing at it, taking it, eating it. That’s fine, that’s fine. I don’t need skin, I don’t need skin! Haha! No, but really, where was I? Oh yeah. You. You and all the problems you’re causing me. Listen. The thing is -

 

  My body shakes and my bones are jostled, as the last memories of my life flow through me before my final second comes. It was a good life. I had a good family, you know? I lived piously, I mean… maybe I had a drink now and then, but you need to allow yourself that fun sometimes, you know? Being holy is good and all, but sometimes you just want to get plastered. I gargle as the black-water burns the inside of my esophagus. Ah… why did I ever come down here? To this hell-hole? I had such a nice life up on…

 

Up on…

 

- the surface. Light leaves my eyes as they are taken from me too.

 

I see it. I see it in my heart of hearts, in my mind’s eye. The memories of the surface. Can you see it too, guy? Ah. It’s so warm. It’s so… bright. Why is everything so bright? My legs give out from under me. I think they’re missing.

 

Wait. Am I getting distracted again? We were talking about something, weren’t we? Uh… Oh. Yeah. Guy, so, real talk, okay? The thing is, tha-

 

  Howling, rushing winds energetically surge around me. All I hear is the raging of the black-water as it seeps in through my ears, as it seeps in over my brain. All I hear is BMMMMM- together with the sound of something… holy, that comes. Like the reverberation of a heartbeat off of a pristine crystal, like… a song, a hum born not out of a melody, but out of a single simple, pure feeling. A clean, strong feeling. Do you hear it too? That strong, clear sound? It rings. It rings like a bell striking midnight. A bell. A bell… Is this the sound of the end? I hope so, it hurts.

 

They’re all jealous of me. They all hate me. They’re lost, yet I am found. Why me? Why am I worthy of this sanction and not them? Why do I persist, yet they do not? They hate me for it, the things, the faces. They hate us for it. Us. Us. Us-ssssssssurrant. Haha!

 

Eh… wait a second…

 

STOP DISTRACTING ME, GUY! I can’t believe you. Sheesh! Rude. After all of this, the least you could do is let me finish my thoughts, seriously. Unbelievable…

 

So, anyways. What I’ve been trying to tell you is that -

 

  It feels hot, light surges all around me and even though I don’t have any eyes, I can sense it. I can feel it enveloping me. Is this the other side? It roars. It’s loud. It’s shaking my body to the core, as if I were being swallowed by a great tsunami, as if it were rattling me around like some play-thing. Like an old doll. Why is it so hot? Why is it so hot?!

 

Everything is quiet.

 

Ah… finally…

 

I want to sigh, but obviously there isn’t enough left of me to do that. But maybe now you’ll stop being such a huge jerk and let me tell you that ther -

 

My body shakes and convulses, my fingers spasming and twitching, as my feet kick out wildly beneath me. Everything is bright. There are voices. Everything is so bright! It’s warm. It’s hot… IT’S HOT! IT’S HOT!

 

  I open my eyes, screaming. SCREAMING! A tussle of strawberry brown hair hangs before my eyes, obscuring a soft face with kind eyes, that looks down to me in deep worry. Her white hood hangs low, her hands are laid on my chest that beats with life. The priestess of the hero-party. WIGGLE. My eyes go wide, my shaking hand reaches the cuff of her robe, smearing it with black-water, as I push her away and look around as I jump to my feet. I am scattered. I feel frenzied. Aware. I can see everything. Look! Look! I can see it all! Look around us! Look around. Around! Haha.. Hahaha! They still don’t get it!

 

WIGGLE is trying to calm me down, BMMMM is approaching from the side. They look worried. Isn’t that nice?! I HAVE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS! But they don’t get it… You don’t get it! How many times do I have to tell you all?!

 

The hero…

 

I turn to face him, the man sheathing his sword once more. The man who came in time to save me. A hero always does, you know? You know?! I lunge towards him, grabbing him by the side rims of his pristine, shining breastplate and I yell. I yell as I shake him like a toy doll.

 

“DON’T YOU GET IT?!” He looks at me, a little lost and worried.

 

“Easy! You’re okay!” calls BMMMM from behind me, as she puts a firm hand on my shoulder to calm me down. But she doesn’t get it either. You all don’t get it!

 

“Breathe,” says WIGGLE, holding her hands out in a slowing gesture. “You’re in a state of shock, you need to breathe.”

 

Breathe?! BREATHE?! I need eyes to breathe, guy! Don’t they get it?!

 

“WHY DON’T YOU ALL GET IT?!” My expression grows wide, I haven’t blinked, I feel the black-water oozing out of my face as my taut expression squeezes it out. I turn back to the hero and shake him some more. It feels good. HAHA!

 

“There’s something in the water! THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE WA-“

 

  I keel over as a fist hits my gut from the side for the second time today. Well, it’s actually like the fourth, but you weren’t here for the first two, guy. I cough and splutter, falling down to my knees, as I wretch out a gooey mouthful of sludge that plants itself down on the dirt, as it leaves my lungs. A face in it looks up towards me. It understands. It knows. I nod to it. It nods back. The trickle flows away, seeping down into the mixture below that still bubbles and broils.

 

The monk kneels down before me and wraps her arms around to hold me. I’m not sure if she’s restraining me or hugging me, honestly. “There’s something in the water,” I tell her, hoping she’ll listen, hoping you’ll finally start listening, guy.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” she says. “Come on, breathe.”

 

My gaze turns to the left to the black-pool of faces that sickers around, sloshing wetly as they all look up to me. As they all reach for my eyes from the black-water. They know. They know that there’s something…

 

- there’s something else in there with them… there's something... something...